Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/173

Rh  1em

 SAINFOIN (Onobrychis sativa) is a low-growing perennial plant with a woody root-stock, whence proceed the stems, which are covered with fine hairs and bear numerous long pinnate leaves, the segments of which are elliptic. The flowers are borne in close pyramidal or cylindrical clusters on the end of long stalks. Each flower is about half an inch in length with lanceolate calyx-teeth shorter than the corolla, which latter is papilionaceous, pink, with darker stripes of the same colour. The indehiscent pods or legumes are flattened from side to side, wrinkled, somewhat sickle-shaped and crested, and contain only a single seed. In Great Britain the plant is a native of the calcareous districts of the southern counties, but elsewhere it is considered as an escape from cultivation. It is native throughout the whole of central Europe and Siberia; but it does not seem to have been cultivated in Great Britain till 1651, when it was introduced from France or French Flanders, its French name being retained. It is grown as a forage plant, being especially well adapted for dry limestone soils. It has about the same nutritive value as lucerne, and is esteemed for milch cattle and for sheep in winter. Sinclair speaks in high terms of its value for this latter purpose.  SAINT. The New Testament have much to say about the relations of the “saints” (as members of the various churches are usually called) with their living contemporaries, but are comparatively reticent on their duties and privileges with regard to their departed brethren. Long before the, however, certain very definite practices in the way of commemoration and invocation had sprung up, which ultimately found doctrinal expression in the authoritative documents alike of the Eastern and of the Western Church. (1) Commemoration.—Under, , &c., allusion has already been made to the ancient custom of visiting the tombs of deceased at certain periods and there offering various. With certain modifications, this practice was retained by the early ; they celebrated the at or near the, laid s on the  in the  of the departed, and in the pre-  made supplication for the peace of their s. Thus among the usages “originated by tradition, strengthened by custom, observed by ,” Tertullian (De Cor. Mil., 3; comp. De Exh. Cast., 11) mentions “the offerings we make for the dead as often as the  comes round” (comp. , ). If such commemoration was usual in domestic circles, it was little likely to be omitted by  in the case of those who had “spoken to them the ,” least of all when the  had also been, as was so often the case, a. In the very instructive document of the, preserved by Eusebius (H. E., iv. 15), in which the of   is described, we are told that the followers of the , having taken up the , deposited them “where it was proper that they should be.” “There also, as far as we can, the  will grant us to assemble and celebrate the natal  of his  in joy and gladness.” Cyprian (Ep., 36) exhorts that the  of death of those who have died in  should be carefully noted for the purpose of celebrating their memory ; and all the earliest extant  contain commemorations of the departed. The s to be commemorated were on the  (see ). (2) Invocation.—It is not difficult to understand how a belief in the efficacy of the s of departed saints—especially of s—should at an early date have taken a practical form. s were believed to pass into the immediate presence of, and the supposed nature of their claims there is not dimly indicated in the document already referred to, which once and again speaks of as “a noble victim selected from the ,” “a rich and acceptable  to .” The readers of Cyprian are familiar with the use made of the intercession of living “” by the lapsed to secure their reconciliation with the ; but positive evidence of the intercession of the dead being invoked for obtaining favour with  is not forthcoming so soon. Perhaps, indeed, Cyril of (c.) is the earliest  to make express allusion to the practice (Cat. Myst., v. 9): “we commemorate... s, s, s, s,... that  at their s and intercessions (πρεσβείαις) would receive our supplications.” In the, however, the  still continued to be offered “for all  and ” as well as for others, and Augustine was the first to declare (In Joann., Tract. 84) that “at the table of the Lord we do not commemorate martyrs in the same way that we do others who rest in peace so as to pray for them, but rather that they may pray for us that we may follow in their footsteps.”

1em  ST ALBANS, a city, municipal borough, and market town of Hertfordshire, England, is finely situated on an eminence above the river Ver, on the main line of the Midland Railway and on branches of the London and North-Western and the Great Northern lines, about 24 miles 